News of the day from across the nation, Dec. 31

Chronicle News Services

Published 3:21 pm, Wednesday, December 30, 2015

1 Las Vegas security: Officials are urging New Year’s Eve revelers in Las Vegas to leave bags, backpacks and strollers at home as police ready for hundreds of thousands of revelers to flood the casino-filled corridor on Thursday. It’s not a first-of-its-kind request, but it’s getting extra emphasis on the Las Vegas Strip following deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and, more recently, a driver on Las Vegas Boulevard who witnesses say intentionally plowed into pedestrians on a busy sidewalk, killing one person. Officials expect 332,000 people to watch fireworks shoot from seven rooftops on the Las Vegas Strip and crowd Fremont Street in downtown.

2 Plane slides off runway: The Federal Aviation Administration says a Boeing 737-900 from Seattle to Chicago slid off the runway at O’Hare International Airport. United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart says there were no injuries. He says the aircraft landed safely but then taxied just beyond the runway’s turnoff point. The FAA says the slide-off happened at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday with United Flight 1977. The agency says the aircraft damaged airfield lights. It was towed to a gate and passengers deplaned normally.

3 Secret Service crash: A New Hampshire man is dead after his car crashed into a vehicle carrying four Secret Service agents. Bruce Danforth, 45, was driving his four-door Mercury Sable north on Route 16 in New Hampshire early Tuesday evening when his car crossed into oncoming traffic and slammed into a Ford Taurus carrying the on-duty Secret Service agents, local police said. Danforth died at the scene; his two passengers — Natasha Meroski, 35, and Kristina Buswell, 21 — were taken to area hospitals, as were the Secret Service agents. “At this time, our personnel have sustained what is described as serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said.

4 580-year sentence: A 40-year-old man is appealing his 580-year prison sentence for sexually abusing six children, including two Amish girls he and his girlfriend kidnapped in northern New York last year. The public defender for Stephen Howells filed the appeal Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, where he and 26-year-old Nicole Vaisey were sentenced Dec. 17 for sexually abusing children ranging in age from 5 to 11 and recording the acts on video.

5Impaired driving video: An Ohio man took a cell phone video of himself drinking while driving and posted it on Facebook, leading to his arrest hours later in a case that illustrates how social media can help law enforcement, a sheriff’s office said. Someone tipped off deputies about the video after it was posted Monday, and the vehicle was stopped that afternoon south of Columbus. Dustin Rittgers, 28, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Franklin County Municipal Court on five misdemeanor charges, including operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs and having an open container in a vehicle.